OREANDA-NEWS. The independent jury has finalized the list of nominees and selected the categories for nomination in the Entrepreneur Of The Year 2007 contest in Russia. The international Entrepreneur Of The Year Award has been run by Ernst & Young for 21 years and it is now established as the most prestigious and recognized international business award.

Geographically, the contest encompasses more than 150 cities in 40 countries all over the world. According to the Ernst & Young press service, this program award is designed to recognize and honor outstanding entrepreneurial achievements in the development of specific sectors of the national economy. In 2003, Russia joined the countries participating in the program, and since then the winners of the Russian national Entrepreneur Of The Year contest have been annually representing our country on the arena of the best entrepreneurs of the world.

This week the jury selected the major categories for which winners will be named, including Manufacturing, Retail Services, IT and Telecommunications, Innovative Business, Small Business, and others.

Russia's Entrepreneur Of The Year award winner will become Russia's international finalist in competing for the World Entrepreneur Of The Year award in Monte Carlo in the spring of 2008. The list of finalists nominated for the Entrepreneur Of the Year program has already been finalized, with 20 businesspeople competing for the award.

The contest is organized in Russia for the fifth time. Its main objective is promoting entrepreneurial activity, searching for and supporting talented, successful, and proactive entrepreneurs. This year, the contest welcomes a large number of businesspeople working in the Russian regions, of which 47% represent Moscow and the Moscow region, 9% work in Saint Petersburg, 17% are leaders of companies located in the Volga-Urals region, 21% pursue their businesses in Siberia and Far East, and 6% represent the South region of Russia. In terms of industries in which the participants operate, most of them are involved in services, manufacturing, retail trading and wholesale sectors where they have built and successfully manage their businesses. Young entrepreneurs under 35 account for about 26% of the contest participants, while 41% of the participants set up their businesses and have been successfully developing them for over ten years.

"We are pleased to see such outstanding entrepreneurs among the contest participants, distinguished by qualities such as an innovative approach, attention to corporate governance, clear vision of strategic development prospects, and social responsibility," said Andrey Pozhalov, Director of the Entrepreneur of the Year Program in Russia. "Most of this year's finalists are entrepreneurs whose businesses came up over the past nine or ten years. Taken together, they created almost 85,000 jobs for the citizens of Russia. More than a quarter of the contestants are young entrepreneurs, which indicates great potential for further development of private business in Russia."